The Lightbulb Computer projects a future beyond screens and smart glasses
Designer Guillaume Ardaud proposes the Lightbulb Computer, a projector and computer vision device that screws into any light socket. It turns everyday surfaces into interactive displays for recipes, maps, and ambient info, offering a socially comfortable alternative to smart glasses and headsets. Ardaud, a former Apple prototyper, argues this approach blends computing with the physical world while keeping us present.
Modern visions for the future of human-computer interaction are excessively focused on smart glasses and headsets - devices that are constraining & socially awkward.
- heliographe
I made this, fun to see my project on the front page!
The main question I tend to get from hacker-types is "what are the tech specs?". The demos run on a Mac with custom software I built for projection mapping/rendering/etc. (the hand tracking uses Apple's built-in framework, which is very good), a small consumer 4k laser projector, and a basic webcam for vision.
But really, this is primarily a research/design prototype - I think it's much more important to figure out what the user experience should ideally feel like, if the interactions are even plausible & desirable in the first place; and then work backwards to the technology.
- schiffern
Nice. This reminds me how I felt watching the first pre-iPhone multitouch demos.
One small quality-of-life improvement that could be added: have the software timestamp when you say "here" and then (using a short low-FPS video buffer?) analyze the corresponding frame of video. This would eliminate the pause when you're pointing at something, waiting for the computer to respond.
Alternately a low-latency speech analyzer could look for the word "here" and quickly snap a screenshot. Perhaps project a temporary dot on the surface, so the user knows they can put their hand down now?
Quite the impressive demo! There's huge potential here.
- blobcode
I wonder if something like this would work for whole-room projection (i.e. not just a projector on a swivel): https://dl.acm.org/doi/fullHtml/10.1145/3531073.3531126
- socratics
An interesting concept. I'm (probably) one of the few people that thought the Humane Pin had an interesting idea at its core, it was just executed poorly at the wrong time. A stationary version that leans into ambience solves a lot of the interaction and engineering issues.
I also like that it addresses my gripe with XR interfaces; you aren't actually sharing a digital object in space and it looks weird to everyone else.
- Cadman021
That was really impressive. Roughly how much do you think a project like that would be valued at?